Anyway, enough about my driving anxieties! We're been keeping busy as ever. Going through all the pictures I've taken and have yet to post proves that I still have a bit to catch up on...
Calvary Boys Concert
Calvary Baptist Church in Cedar Rapids, IA, is about 75 miles directly south of us in Volga. At some point several years ago, they heard of our little church associated with Village Missions and decided to get in contact with the people here. A group of men from there who travels to sing at concerts, the Calvary Boys, has come up to Volga several times in the last few years to share with our church and community (for free). I'm told that one year they even brought a bus full of church members! They came here to share one Sunday morning/afternoon in September when the weather was still lovely; they put on an outdoor concert in our park which many people came and enjoyed. How neat it was to have people travel here to our little town to share their talents even though they weren't benefiting monetarily. We not only benefited from their music and entertainment, but their company was such an encouragement to our church!
True Woman 2015
The True Woman "Revive '15" conference put on by Nancy Leigh DeMoss was held in Indianapolis, IN, September 25-26 this year. I really enjoyed the conference last year, but there was just no plausible way that I would be able to attend this year; since they provide a free live stream of the event, though, I decided to invite women from the church and community to come and watch it with me. It was a large time commitment - from (if my memory serves me right) about 4:00-8:30 on Friday evening, and 7:30-3:00 Saturday morning/afternoon (this is after the time adjustment as we are an hour behind Indianapolis), but several women were able to commit to being in attendance at least part of the time, and some of us were able to be there the whole time (here's a shout-out to my husband who cared for our kids both days so I could be there!). One of the women in our church graciously offered to host the live stream in her basement, and we provided Friday's supper and Saturday's breakfast/lunch for all who could come. The theme was "Women Teaching Women", and I think I can speak for everyone in saying that we were all convicted and encouraged by the messages given. We had six women from our church who were able to come at least part of the time (a newlywed, two young moms, and three older women), and one woman who attends a different church in the area but who was interested in coming - even with four (extremely well-behaved) children in tow! It was a wonderful time of encouragement and fellowship.
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| Bright and early Saturday morning! |
Grace College Mission Conference
Mid-October, we traveled back to Indiana for a few days as Chris had been asked to represent Village Missions at the annual missions conference of our Alma Mater in Winona Lake. Since it would only be an hour away from our families, I convinced him that it would be good for me and the kids to tag along and visit family (you're welcome, grandparents!). ;) He spent Oct 20-23 in the dorms at Grace College with fellow Village Missionary (hailing from Cable, OH) Wayne Taylor - who, interestingly, was our first contact with Village Missions: When we first became interested in the organization and knew they would be represented at Grace's mission conference, even though we had both graduated Chris sent me there (he had to work that day) to scope out the organization and their rep. Anyway, Chris really enjoyed going to the conference and sharing with the students there. Here's what he shared in our most recent newsletter regarding his time there:
Can you name a town in your home state that has less than 1,000 people? That was a question that I asked various students throughout the week as they came up to my booth for a “Grace Quest Challenge”. They then had to look up a town in their state that had less than 1,000 people and write it down along with its current population. This gave me a plug to describe the ministry of Village Missions – helping place pastors in small rural communities who have no evangelical presence or whose presence is in danger of ceasing.I also enjoyed the time with family and friends (and I think our parents enjoyed seeing the grandkids, as always!). I was thankful that the opportunity came up, since I had thought that we wouldn't be able to see them again until Christmas!
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| We enjoyed our brief Grace College visit before heading to Fort Wayne! |
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| All that traveling really took it out of this normally-endlessly-energetic guy! |
Halloween
When Halloween rolled around, to be honest we were unsure about what to do. Although we both grew up celebrating Halloween with our families, being in a Latino church for a few years made us aware for the first time of some of the objections that some Christians have to celebrating that day. We haven't felt a reason to celebrate it for a number of years now - and especially since having young kids, as we've become more sensitive to many of the scarier aspects that can be hard to avoid. Since we live in town now, however, we decided that it was important that we not ostracize those who do celebrate it - and there just aren't many other times that so many people come knocking on your door! We settled on hosting a s'mores buffet in our backyard - thinking that not only would it be a welcome break by a fire to warm up chilly trick-or-treaters, but it would also give us a chance to talk to some of the kids and parents for a minute or two before they moved on.
Since we live on the edge of town, we didn't end up having many visitors (it seemed that most were hitting up just the main road or two and then speeding off to another nearby town to finish up), but we did have a few families stop by, and I think they enjoyed the change of pace. We really liked having a few minutes to talk to different people....and our kids (predictably) LOVED the s'mores!
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| I decided at the last minute to let the kids dress up... |
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| ...So we had to be creative with things we already had! |
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| Do you take your s'mores with Hershey's or with Reese's? |
Well, it's almost 11:00pm here, and no matter how much I wish they would, my toddlers won't sleep in for anything... so that means I need to high-tail it to bed so I'm not a zombie tomorrow!
Adios, all.... If I don't write before then, Happy Thanksgiving!
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